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 Labyrinth, new product for April
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Mankyle
Acolyte

Spain
42 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  17:04:34  Show Profile Send Mankyle a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
As most of you may know, next year, in April, will come in stores the new AP of D&D 5e, a product called, for the moment, "Labyrinth"

https://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth-Wizards-RPG-Team/dp/0786966092

I'm going to give my 2 cents. I have noticed lately that there have been a couple references to Acererak and Chult in the latest products so I guess next product will be a Sandbox adventure set in Chult, with a last dungeon that will feature Acererak and the Tomb of Horrors.
Why?

- HERO novel, written by Salvatore, one of the BBEG says a mirror of entrapment was given to her by no other than Acererak, whose lair lies in distant Chult.
- Dungeonology book tells us openly of the Tomb of Horrors, located in Chult.
- There have been some references lately to the Ring of Winter, an artifact said to be in the hands of one adventurer and Ex-Harpers whose latest whereabouts were in Chult.
- The name Labyrinth could also be a reference to Ubtao, because this god's credo, speaks of the life as a labyrinth that must be crossed. In 2e the specialist priests of Ubtao were called Mazemasters or something.

I don't think these mentions of the tomb of horrors and Acererak are casual.

Any opinions about this?

Edited by - Mankyle on 13 Nov 2016 17:07:09

Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  17:56:27  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Damn, and here I thought you'd have news about about the new Labyrinth boardgame - something folks actually want!

Anyhow, they've been doing this for a while now - the 4e Daggerford module had the Temple of Elemental Evil shoe-horned into it.

What I think happens over at the WotC offices these days (in the near-empty 'meetings') is that the two guys sitting there have absolutely NO new ideas, so they go through all the old 1e/2e stuff and try to figure-out how to use it in their sinking sh... errr... FR. I believe the conversation goes something like this: "Hey, how can we possibly alienate the few fans we have left?"

"Lets just print old Greyhawk stuff in the Realms... can we get back to 'Kickboxing' now?"

And I think that sums up my feelings about it. I am a HUGE fan of The Forgotten Realms. I am also a BIG fan of Greyhawk (my first 'setting love'). I have been mashing the two together for years. I can do that, because I'm just a homebrewed fanboi who can create all the non-canon stuff he wants. For some strange reason, they think they can get away with this as well. IP's don't work that way.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 13 Nov 2016 22:13:18
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KanzenAU
Senior Scribe

Australia
763 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  22:41:15  Show Profile Send KanzenAU a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I kind of get the D&D team wanting to capitalize on the big name modules like Tomb of Horrors, to get new and old fans of D&D, if not the Realms, to buy their products. It seems like a good enough strategy for a team only putting out 2 adventures a year, with most of them being subcontracted out for development. It's very unfortunate however that their base world for shoehorning these into happens to be the Forgotten Realms. Hopefully they will try and do it tastefully - FR has always had gates to other worlds and so forth - but my first instinct is a bit on the side of throwing my hands up in the air. Why can't they just use the great stuff already in this world, the Realms is full of great material... grumble grumble. But... I guess sales targets or something. I love the idea of using Tomb of Horrors, I just don't want it in the Realms. I do see Realms-associated names like Sean K Reynolds on a lot of 5e products, so hopefully if they do it, they'll make it believable - or maybe even do a Ravenloft type thing and have you end up in another dimension once you get to Chult. Anyway, mini-rant over.

I'm still hopeful for one of next years adventures, possibly even Labyrinth, to be set in Undermountain. Waterdeep got a lot of attention in Death Masks, almost like they're getting it ready for something. That could be for the movie, which I heard would feature the Yawning Portal... though I haven't heard anything about it for ages.

Regional maps for Waterdeep, Triboar, Ardeep Forest, and Cormyr on DM's Guild, plus a campaign sized map for the North

Edited by - KanzenAU on 13 Nov 2016 22:42:48
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  22:52:20  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Here's my BIG problem with all of this - I already had the main GH continent 'across the sea' in my own, personalized version of the Forgotten Realms. That means that all of that old material was always available to me, within FR, without having to distort everything.

Over the years, I am sure lots of people have placed some of the older modules within FR, but now, they are disrupting those campaigns (if any of them are still going on), because we have redundancy. I placed my own FR-ized version of the ToEE in the Dalelands region, and it was a great fit. Now I have a canon(?) one over on the Sword Coast, near Daggerford. I mean, thats easy enough to fix (a new temple 'sprang up'), but others things aren't as simple.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  23:32:05  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Out of curiosity, was the Tomb of Horrors actually set in Greyhawk, originally? Or was that the default assumption because there were no other campaign settings in print at the time? A quick glance at the pdf doesn't show that the Tomb is in any particular location, which argues against it being tied to a specific campaign setting.

Not trying to be argumentative; I'm just curious to know how tied to Greyhawk the Tomb is. I know I've always assumed it's on Oerth and I'm not keen on seeing it ported over arbitrarily, but if there's no definitive ties then that's less of an issue for me.

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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 13 Nov 2016 23:35:11
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6638 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  23:44:39  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
As I recall, it was Gary Gygax's attempt to bring some of his cocky players down a peg or two and then his personal, "in the briefcase" adventure for Cons when he encountered gamers with uber-powerful characters who needed a reality check. It was then run officially at one of the GENCONs or Origins and then published. When the World of Greyhawk was published, it was officially placed in the Vast Swamp, south of the Great Kingdom.

-- George Krashos

"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
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Brian R. James
Forgotten Realms Game Designer

USA
1098 Posts

Posted - 13 Nov 2016 :  23:44:51  Show Profile  Visit Brian R. James's Homepage Send Brian R. James a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Tomb of Horrors novel was certainly set on Oerth.

Brian R. James - Freelance Game Designer

Follow me on Twitter @brianrjames
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2016 :  00:21:16  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos

As I recall, it was Gary Gygax's attempt to bring some of his cocky players down a peg or two and then his personal, "in the briefcase" adventure for Cons when he encountered gamers with uber-powerful characters who needed a reality check. It was then run officially at one of the GENCONs or Origins and then published. When the World of Greyhawk was published, it was officially placed in the Vast Swamp, south of the Great Kingdom.

-- George Krashos



Thank you; I did not have that information. Save for reading the first few novels, I've never really gotten into Greyhawk.

On a related note, though, the Tomb of Horrors is in the novel (and assumedly, the upcoming movie, as well) Ready Player One -- it is a personal fave.

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Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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moonbeast
Senior Scribe

USA
522 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2016 :  12:55:09  Show Profile Send moonbeast a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The most epic (classic) D&D "labyrinth" and mega-dungeon of them all is the one and only Undermountain. It would be an insta-buy for me if this Labyrinth project really ends up to be a 5th Edition rendition of Undermountain.
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